Mobile communication systems were developed to provide mobile users with communication services. With the rapid advance of technologies, the mobile communication systems have evolved to the level capable of providing high speed data communication service beyond the early voice-oriented services.
Recently, standardization for a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, as one of the next-generation mobile communication systems, is underway in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). LTE aims at commercial deployment around 2010 timeframe and realizing high-speed packet-based communications with the data rate of up to 100 Mbps, which is higher than the currently available data rate, and its standardization is almost complete. In line with the completion of the LTE standardization, an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system is now under discussion, which improves a transfer rate by combining the LTE communication system with several new technologies. The term LTE system as used herein may be construed to include the legacy LTE system and the LTE-A system. The term ‘LTE system’ as used herein may be construed to include the legacy LTE system and the LTE-A system. One of the representative technologies that are newly adopted is Carrier Aggregation. The carrier aggregation is for a terminal to transmit/receive data over multiple carriers. In more detail, the terminal transmits/receives data through predetermined cells (typically, the cells belonging to one base station) and this can be understood that the terminal transmits/receives data through multiple cells.
Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) is another newly introduced technology.
The present invention proposes a method of reporting the terminal capability information related to the newly introduced technologies to the base station efficiently so as to facilitate communication between the base station and the terminal.